Trump Threatens Federal Takeover of Washington After Member of DOGE Is Assaulted

Clare73 said:

Case in point. . .

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Of course!! Why is anyone on the left obliged to be empathetic to the right ?


Please. I'm not trying to be difficult I'm curious about the answer.

ThatRobGuy said:

It's possible, although, we'd have to get more case details to see if there really are similarities or glaring red flags.

In this case of this kid, the pictures I've seen look like he was legitimately beaten up

MPD Makes Two Arrests in Swann Street Attempted Carjacking | mpdc

The Metropolitan Police Department announces the arrests of two suspects in an attempted unarmed carjacking that occurred in Northwest.

mpdc.dc.gov

It sounds like police did witness some of the incident as well (which is how they were able to apprehend two of the people)

Unlike the Jussie case, where he had a few minor bruises, and for some odd reason, kept the rope around his neck for 40 minutes so the police could see it when they arrived. (which was the first red flag)

Objectively speaking, a car-jacking turning violent in DC is a more (unfortunately) "normal" premise, than the premise of two white guys in Trump hats walking around south Chicago at 2am shouting the N-word at people and yelling "this is MAGA country"
(which, if that did actually ever happen, one would expect that their parents would be getting notified of where to retrieve the bodies from)

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Crime overall is down. Donald is just looking for an excuse to stick it to his perceived enemies. Calling the military for ordinary street mugging is authoritarianism.

Clare73 said:

Indifference to harm of someone, and calling it staged, is based in bias.

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Yes it is.

One federal employee is mugged and the POTUS calls for "federalizing" the entire city?

Ummm....

rambot said:

Of course!! Why is anyone on the left obliged to be empathetic to the right ?


Please. I'm not trying to be difficult I'm curious about the answer.

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I'm thinkin' when it comes to physically injuring people, we should all be united against it.

DaisyDay said:

Crime overall is down. Donald is just looking for an excuse to stick it to his perceived enemies. Calling the military for ordinary street mugging is authoritarianism.

https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2025/08/07/trump-federal-crackdown-dc-crime-rate-falling

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To preface, I don't doubt that Trump grinding axes for personal grudges is a factor...

That aspect aside


With regards to the reports of falling crime, and that clashing with public perception, I suspect there's a couple things at play...

1) Are these reports of falling crime leveraging the NIBRS reporting system? If so, there's a major issue with that



2) Things like decriminalization of certain things and declining arrest rates probably explain some of the disconnect as well. (for instance, if a person spent the first 60 years of their life in an environment where "doing drugs out in public is criminal", that act getting decriminalized or deprioritized for enforcement isn't going to change their perception overnight)


3) It sounds like with DC in particular, some residents are questioning the official stats.



One factor possibly driving it is that DC is somewhat unique in that they have an almost stunningly low "action" rate on crimes that are reported.
(prosecutors declined to take action on 2/3 of the referrals for the local DC cases)


The reason for this is because of the unique situation of them having a local PD (like a regular city), but the actual prosecution and filing of charges happens from the USAO who's also in charge of handling important federal-level cases, and trying to play the role of city prosecutor on the side.

I think it goes without saying that if a Federal prosecutor looks at the reports on his desk and sees "multi-million dollar embezzling ring", "child exploitation producer" and "3 teens broke into car and stole iPhone"...it's pretty clear which one is going to get "bumped for time" if there are resource constraints. (noting that DC is one of the most active Federal District in the country for taking on federal crime cases) They're going to say "nah, cut 'em loose, I don't have time to deal with that, I have a human trafficking case to focus on"

D.C.’s Department of Forensics also lost its accreditation 3 years ago, limiting prosecution capacity by making reliable testing for firearms, DNA, and drugs harder to obtain. They actually had to send things to external labs when they wanted something tested (not sure if they ever got that rectified)


So, given all of that as a backdrop, "the official reported stats say DC crime is down" doesn't necessarily mean
"fewer people committed crimes"
"there are fewer dangerous people on the streets"
"justice was served to a criminal"

Clare73 said:

I'm thinkin' when it comes to physically injuring people, we should all be united against it.

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Like when US police fire on news reporters who are live on air.

Clare73 said:

I'm thinkin' when it comes to physically injuring people, we should all be united against it.

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I would have thought snatching people off the streets and sending them to a concentration camp would be universally condemned and yet, here we are.

That’s why I simply feel zero sympathy for anyone even tangentially associated with this administration.

Whatever happens to them, not my problem.

ThatRobGuy said:

It's possible, although, we'd have to get more case details to see if there really are similarities or glaring red flags.

In this case of this kid, the pictures I've seen look like he was legitimately beaten up

MPD Makes Two Arrests in Swann Street Attempted Carjacking | mpdc

The Metropolitan Police Department announces the arrests of two suspects in an attempted unarmed carjacking that occurred in Northwest.

mpdc.dc.gov

It sounds like police did witness some of the incident as well (which is how they were able to apprehend two of the people)

Unlike the Jussie case, where he had a few minor bruises, and for some odd reason, kept the rope around his neck for 40 minutes so the police could see it when they arrived. (which was the first red flag)

Objectively speaking, a car-jacking turning violent in DC is a more (unfortunately) "normal" premise, than the premise of two white guys in Trump hats walking around south Chicago at 2am shouting the N-word at people and yelling "this is MAGA country"
(which, if that did actually ever happen, one would expect that their parents would be getting notified of where to retrieve the bodies from)

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I’ll clarify, I don’t think the two cases are perfect parallels. I just think whatever happened here is being used as an excuse for a federal takeover of the city and I find that to be way more concerning than some white knight getting a dose of reality.

Clare73 said:

I'm thinkin' when it comes to physically injuring people, we should all be united against it.

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Well. I would have thought showing compassion to someone diagnosed with cancer would have been a benchmark.
But apparently not.

I would have thought that not mocking a physically handicapped person would have been a benchmark.
But apparently not.

I Could have thought it was when a presidential candidate suggested/implied he wanted violence directed at a citizen.

But apparently not.



So I'm not sure where your benchmark fits in the rubric.

ThatRobGuy said:

So, given all of that as a backdrop, "the official reported stats say DC crime is down" doesn't necessarily mean
"fewer people committed crimes"
"there are fewer dangerous people on the streets"
"justice was served to a criminal"

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And to be clear, you are certain that this was not considered when stating that crime rates are down or you are stating this more as a "but what if?", as if to say that crime in DC could never ever be appropriately measured so we'd never know I'd its down nor up?

This does not sound like some "new" or "sudden change" to how data is collected.

....I guess rounding up illegal immigrants is no longer the priority?
Or using the FBI to redact Trump's name from thousdand of documents?

The deployment, effective from Friday at 12:01 a.m., was expected to draw law enforcement officers from a wide swath of agencies across the federal government. They include: immigration police tasked with deportations, the F.B.I., U.S. marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration and twelve other federal agencies.

It is unclear how many agents will be part of the surge and in what parts of the city. A statement from the White House said that the deployment “will be focused on high traffic tourist areas and other known hotspots,” a category that could be broadly interpreted to include much of the city.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/07/us/politics/trump-washington-dc-federal-police.html

ozso said:

The lack of putting on a show of empathy.

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Correct. You don't even try anymore.

It's good know who you are I guess.

rambot said:

And to be clear, you are certain that this was not considered when stating that crime rates are down or you are stating this more as a "but what if?", as if to say that crime in DC could never ever be appropriately measured so we'd never know I'd its down nor up?

This does not sound like some "new" or "sudden change" to how data is collected.

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I'm not sure if they considered it or not, but the one article I linked stated:

The USAO’s declination rate has steadily increased since fiscal year 2016, when federal prosecutors declined 31 percent of arrests, by fiscal year 2020 - 48 percent of cases were getting declined, and they're up to declining 67 percent of cases now.


A spokesperson for the USAO says in an email that charging rates for firearms and drug felonies are driving the recent trend, and for two primary reasons: unreliable forensic testing of evidence and body cameras.

“First, because the District’s Department of Forensic Sciences evidence lost its accreditation, we often cannot secure the drug testing, DNA, and firearms testing we need to successfully prosecute these offenses,”

GoldenBoy89 said:

I would have thought snatching people off the streets and sending them to a concentration camp would be universally condemned and yet, here we are.

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Case in point. . .

rambot said:

Well. I would have thought showing compassion to someone diagnosed with cancer would have been a benchmark.
But apparently not.
So I'm not sure where your benchmark fits in the rubric.

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It starts with all the relative facts. . .

wing2000 said:

One federal employee is mugged and the POTUS calls for "federalizing" the entire city?

Ummm....

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Case in point. . .which explains a lot.

How many should get mugged before intervention is deemed necessary?

Clare73 said:

Case in point. . .which explains a lot.

How many should get mugged before intervention is deemed necessary?

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Is that a serious question?
1 person being mugged = a federal response?

wing2000 said:

Is that a serious question?
1 person being mugged = a federal response?

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Non-responsive. . .and quite a revealing "dodge."